The Ash Tree Nymphs or Meliae were created by the blood that fell on the earth when the Titan Cronus castrated his father Uranus, in his effort to overthrow him. Along with the Meliae, came out the Erinyes (the Furies) and the Giants. The mankind of the Age of Bronze originated from the Meliae. The honey-nymphs that nurtured and raised Zeus in Crete, Ida and Adrasteia, were called Meliai and probably belonged to this group of nymphs.

The Meliae were always invoked as a group, although in a few myths, some of them are given individual names. One of them was called Melia and was the mother of Io, Philodice, Inachus, and Aegialeus.